{"id":74715,"date":"2019-06-04T13:06:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-04T19:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=74715"},"modified":"2019-06-04T13:45:24","modified_gmt":"2019-06-04T19:45:24","slug":"a-note-on-the-empty-tomb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/06\/a-note-on-the-empty-tomb.html","title":{"rendered":"A Note on the Empty Tomb"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)
For the record: I don\u2019t actually believe that the Garden Tomb is the right place. But it\u2019s familiar, it will serve as a good illustration, and, anyhow, we don\u2019t know exactly where the right place is (though it\u2019s probably within a few hundred yards) and, so far as we know, have no photographs of it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bill Hamblin and I published the column below on 30 March 2018, in the Deseret News<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Written most likely in the A.D. mid-50s \u2014 that is, about two decades after the death of Jesus \u2014 Paul\u2019s first letter to the saints in Corinth contains a stirring testimony of the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:1-11<\/a>), including the implicit claim that the tomb in which Jesus\u2019 body was placed was soon found to be empty: Specifically,\u00a01 Corinthians 15:3-4<\/a>\u00a0explicitly says that Jesus died and was buried, but that, on the third day, \u201che rose again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Many modern scholars believe that Paul is citing a very early Christian creed, a text that may have been familiar to his audience and that in any case, if they are correct, is necessarily older than the epistle that quotes it. Moreover, Paul expressly says that he\u2019s reiterating to the Corinthians what he had taught them several years before, when he was personally teaching in Corinth among them. Thus, it seems difficult to deny that the idea arose very early that the tomb of Jesus was unoccupied three days after his burial. Furthermore, this idea had spread far beyond Palestine within just a few years of the claimed event.<\/span><\/p>\n

Written somewhat later than Paul\u2019s letter to the Corinthians, all four New Testament Gospels agree in relating that, on the Sunday morning following Christ\u2019s crucifixion, the tomb in which the dead body of Jesus had been placed on Friday was empty. (See\u00a0Matthew 28:1-8<\/a>,\u00a0Mark 16:1-8<\/a>,\u00a0Luke 24:1-6<\/a>,\u00a0John 20:1-10<\/a>.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Uniquely among the four gospels,\u00a0Matthew 27:62-66<\/a>\u00a0tells of guards being placed at the tomb. According to Matthew, this was done at the initiative of \u201cthe chief priests and Pharisees\u201d and with the approval of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. \u201cSir,\u201d\u00a0Matthew 27:63-64<\/a>\u00a0quotes them as saying to Pilate, \u201cwe remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, \u2018After three days I will rise.\u2019 Therefore, order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, \u2018He has risen from the dead,\u2019 and the last fraud will be worse than the first.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew continues with his account of the guards during the event of the resurrection, which, he says, paralyzed them with fear and left them temporarily \u201clike dead men\u201d (Matthew 28:4<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

When they had recovered their wits, though, \u201csome of the guard went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, \u2018Tell people, \u201cHis disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep.\u201d And if this comes to the governor\u2019s ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.\u2019 So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day\u201d (Matthew 28:11-15<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, according to the gospel of Matthew, both believers and unbelievers agreed that Jesus\u2019 body was absent from the tomb, however differently they might explain that fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

St. Justin Martyr (A.D. 100-165), a pagan philosopher who was born in Palestine and converted to Christianity as an adult, was familiar with a Jewish accusation that the disciples had stolen Christ\u2019s body from the tomb. He mentions it in his \u201cDialogue with Trypho,\u201d 108. Likewise, Tertullian, writing around A.D. 200 in what is today Tunisia, on the northern coast of Africa, knows of the Jewish claim. \u201cThis is he,\u201d Tertullian\u2019s \u201cDe spectaculis\u201d (\u201cOn the Games\u201d) quotes Jewish skeptics as saying about Jesus, \u201cwhom his disciples secretly stole away, that it might be said he had risen again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The medieval Jewish anti-Christian work known as the \u201cSefer Toledot Yeshu\u201d (\u201cThe Book of the Generations of Jesus\u201d) offers a variant of the accusation, suggesting that it was a gardener (compare\u00a0John 20:15<\/a>) who originally stole the body of Jesus and then later sold it to the Jewish leadership. This story makes little sense, of course, because the most decisive rebuttal that the ancient Jewish leadership could have made to claims of Christ\u2019s resurrection would, obviously, have been to have publicly produced and displayed his still-dead body. If they had had it in their possession, they would have triumphantly done so \u2014 and Christianity would have died in its cradle.<\/span><\/p>\n

But that, plainly, was something that they could not do. Which is among the reasons why, still today, believing Christians joyously proclaim that Christ is risen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Posted from Jerusalem, Israel<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Bill Hamblin and I published the column below on 30 March 2018, in the Deseret News: \u00a0 Written most likely in the A.D. mid-50s \u2014 that is, about two decades after the death of Jesus \u2014 Paul\u2019s first letter to the saints in Corinth contains a stirring testimony of the resurrection (1 Corinthians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nA Note on the Empty Tomb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Bill Hamblin and I published the column below on 30 March 2018, in the Deseret News:   Written most likely in the A.D. mid-50s \u2014 that\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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